


Blooming Rose

by ASBusinessMagnet



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond Theory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-09-01
Packaged: 2018-04-14 05:36:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4552659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ASBusinessMagnet/pseuds/ASBusinessMagnet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steven learns a little more about Rose Quartz and her strange ways. He also learns something quite surprising about himself. AU stemming from "Rose's Scabbard".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Out of Body Sensation

"Do you remember this place? Do you have any of her memories?" Pearl said, as she held onto the grass, sitting down on one of those floating platforms that seemed to litter the Earth.

As she said this, Steven looked around where she had gotten him once more. It was hard to see anything on the ground in nighttime, especially since he was so high up, so he turned to Pearl. He never questioned why he knew her, because he had her since he was born, so he allowed her to continue. She stood up and said: "We were right here, over five thousand years ago." She projected a hologram of Steven's mother, Rose Quartz, next to herself, so that for Steven, she was behind her. Pearl then knelt over the projection.

She thus spoke, in a voice slightly different from her own, and the holographic Rose imitated the lip movements. "Pearl..."

"Yes?" Pearl responded, in her original voice.

"I'm going to stay and fight for this planet. You don't have to do this with me."

"But I want to!" Pearl almost jumped at the opportunity, and Steven began to think that maybe he did know of this already. The idea was still preposterous, since he wasn't here "over five thousand years ago", but his gemstone was, after all.

"I know you do. Please, please understand: if we lose, we'll be killed, and if we win..." Steven struggled to find an ending for this sentence, and suddenly it clicked in his head, really placing him in the memory... and outside his body.

_"...we can never go home."_

Suddenly, the Rose Quartz hologram disappeared, and Pearl stood up and turned to Steven. "How did you know?"

Steven just shrugged, still not entirely sure what is going on, especially since his sensation returned. "How did _you_ know? How do gems have memories at all?"

Pearl sat down. It had been so long since she left Homeworld, where she hypothetically could have asked this to another gem, but it was likely that many other gems didn't know, and that she, as a servant class gem, wasn't even _meant_ to know. "Hmm." she mused to herself.

As Steven watched her, though, he seemed to be overtaken by a different essence. It was the same essence that he tapped into when reproducing the memory, but at the same time it seemed to be hostile, wanting the body for itself.

Steven thus spoke, not of his own will. _"I need some alone time now."_

Pearl stood up and looked at Steven, once again. "But aren't you curious about how gems work?"

"It wasn't me! I swear!" Steven threw up his arms in defense.

"What do you mean, it wasn't you?" Pearl gave Steven a weird look.

"It just felt like... someone else was in my body and..." When trying to explain what he felt, Steven quickly ran out of words.

"But then... if it isn't you..." Pearl shivered due to the revelation, but finally had the courage to ask: "Rose Quartz?"

_"Yes?"_ The feeling within Steven had returned.

"Is it you there... inside Steven?"

But just as quickly as she had come, she had gone, and Steven was back. "Didn't she tell me that she was going to become half of me? In that video tape?"

"What video tape?" Pearl's awe had suddenly turned into confusion, and the hopes of meeting Rose again had died down.

"The one in Lion's mane. It was apparently meant for me. My mom recorded herself on video! Isn't that cute?"

"Alright, so... if Rose is literally half of you, does that mean that... she could return?" Pearl began piecing together facts to conclusions.

"Um... as I said, I want to sort this out all by myself." Steven politely asked.

"Oh, okay. See you!" Pearl jumped from the platform onto the subsequent platforms, sometimes skipping a few and muttering something inaudible to herself. Steven thus concluded that she was excited about being able to meet Rose again. So was he.

But then the reality came over him, as he realized that the sensation had subsided, and he was as in control of his own body as ever.

* * *

Steven sat down at the grass, thinking about what happened to him. Apparently, the other essence came to him three times: once when he was trying to recount a memory by Rose, once when he was thinking about gems, and once when he was intensely looking at Pearl.

He quickly drew the conclusion that these three were connected by the fact that he had been feeling particularly strong emotions that Rose would feel. Therefore, for the process, he would need something that was highly personal for Rose.

Of course, he immediately knew where to look for it. He stood up and looked at Lion, who was still sitting next to the floating platforms at ground level, and called out his name. Lion thus teleported himself to the platform where Steven was and stood down. Steven looked back at his surroundings and noticed that Pearl had left the sword inside the scabbard back. He assumed that she wanted to bring them back to Lion. Thus, he picked up the scabbard, took a deep breath and dove inside Lion's mane.

Once he was in the alternate dimension, he swam to the island hosting various random objects. Once he got up there, he dropped the sword and looked around, thinking in his typical fashion: _If I was my mom, which of these objects would be the most personal to me? The bubbled gem? Nah, it doesn't even look like anything. The Mr. Universe t-shirt? Who even wears something this big?_

Steven's eyes then looked down and noticed a photo in a pink frame, next to the big chest (of the literal kind, not of the breast kind). He could make out Greg, eating a hot dog, together with Rose. He decided that this was sentimental enough, and once he held it, he climbed down the island. He was sure to be careful, since the last thing that he wanted was to roll down the hill, then roll across the platform and jump down at least several hundred feet.

Once he was back on the platform, he took a closer look at the frame. Rose looked almost as beautiful as the framed painting of her that was hung at the Crystal Temple, while Greg was considerably less pretty, especially since he had begun losing his hair, but nonetheless, there was something in him. The hot-dog reminded Steven of his own habits of eating donuts, as well as that phrase about the pork chops, while the eyebrows were in a certain strange shape, almost like his own. Even the hair, if you didn't count the appearing bald spots, was almost as good as his... as hers... as his.

Suddenly, once Steven had focused on Greg, he felt the same sensation of his soul being taken away from him. He continued to look at Greg, and once exactly half of his soul was taken away, someone else spoke, in his voice, but certainly not in his way: _"Isn't he beautiful?"_

"Oh, hey, mom." Inadvertently, Steven placed the picture down, expecting his mother to be somewhere nearby. He even looked around and called out: "Mom?" He remembered, though, that Rose wouldn't necessarily know what Steven sounded like, and instead tried something different. "Rose?"

After some time in his own body, though, he realized what was going on. "Oh, right, the picture." He thus sat down and began intensely looking at the picture again, just so he could feel the out-of-body sensation again.

_"Steven?"_ The voice called out.

"Hey, mom! I suppose that you did say that you're going to become half of me, but I didn't expect it to be this literal." Steven tried to stay calm in this situation, and this time, he kept his focus on the picture.

_"Why do you keep looking at the photo?"_ Rose asked in Steven's voice, once again.

"Apparently you go away if I stop looking at it." Steven was trying to keep his body to show all his expressions, but it was difficult with both of his hands holding the frame.

_"So, this is a limitation now."_ Rose mused.

"I wouldn't know. This is the first time we've met." Steven shook it off.

_"I never thought it would be like this. I expected a much more peaceful retirement, amongst pink clouds and everything... not sharing a body with another soul. Oh, if I would have known this..."_

"I know what you mean. It's like that time when I was fused with Connie."

_"Who is Connie?"_ Rose was interested. For someone who was in the same gem as Steven, she was surprised to know that she didn't actually share any of his memories.

"Oh, she's just a human friend of mine."

_"You can fuse with humans?"_ Rose made Steven gasp. It was a bit difficult to parse whose emotions were whose, as they still shared a body, but they both decided that they would get used to it.

"Yeah! And when we fused, we kept talking over each other in the fusion. We couldn't quite get the hang of it. And I guess it's a bit like this now."

_"Have you tried fusing with a gem yet?"_

"No... They would probably think that it was inappropriate. Especially Pearl." Steven sighed.

_"How is Pearl, anyway? She seemed to be the most heartbroken about my pregnancy."_ Rose twisted Steven in such a way that both became worried for Pearl.

"Yeah, just about right now we had an argument about how she misses you and how she wishes to talk to you again."

The Rose part remained silent. Though, it still had the same control over Steven.

"Do you miss her?"

_"I suppose that there would be some... unfinished amends we need to resolve. Provided that she's feeling fine."_

"Well, sort of. You see, she just learned that you have a lion, that I'm now taking care of, and-"

_"You mean Leo?"_ Rose wanted to look back at the ground, just to see the creature once again, but knew that if she had lost focus of the picture, she would disappear.

"That's his name?"

_"That would be right. In my last days, once I figured out that you might not inherit all my gem powers, I was able to tap into a corrupted gem and store my belongings there. But you already know that, right?"_

"Yeah! And now I store stuff there too."

_"I knew you would make good use of Leo."_ Both Rose and Steven smiled simultaneously.

"Anyway, so you said you wanted to talk to Pearl again, right?"

_"Steven... I'm not sure if you even want this, but-"_

"But what?"

_"You see, I..."_ Rose was at a loss of words, not being able to assure Steven that everything would be okay. A certain uncertainty surrounded everything that she thought of.

"It's okay. You can always confide in little Stevie."

_"If I come back, I just don't want to lose you."_

"What do you mean?"

_"If I wanted, I could return to my own form, but I'm not sure if you could revert the process. You can shapeshift, right?"_

"Eh, I tried once, but then cat heads began growing on my body and dad had to help in washing them away." Steven wanted to laugh, but then was reminded of the horrifying memories.

Rose, though, didn't seem to mind, instead being curious about Steven's everyday life. _"You mean your father Greg? Washing them away?"_

"He owns a car wash now. He's the only source of money for our family."

_"I knew he could do_ it." Rose once again used Steven's body to giggle. _"In any case, that is just a common side-effect of shapeshifting, when your entire body is not relaxed. Since I would be focusing on it, I could definitely do it. I just wanted to know if your body was capable of it, being organic and everything."_

"Oh. But?"

_"But, once I was done making amends, you would have to return by repeating the process I did."_

"We'll figure it out. You really need to talk to Pearl first and everything."

_"You seem much like me when I was younger. I would always jump to danger, especially when I was told there was an uncontrolled planet that needed conquering."_

Steven suddenly laughed, briefly coming out of focus with the picture. He made to quickly look back at it, though. He had realized that the "uncontrolled planet" was Earth, and that Rose had stopped in her tracks when she noted the beauty of Earth. They briefly shared another moment of laughter, before becoming rather serious about Earth - and about their crazy plan for her to meet up with the Crystal Gems once again.

_"Alright, Steven. Are you ready?"_

"One last thing. What do you exactly mean by the whole shapeshifting process? What's it like being in my gem, anyway?"

_"Wow. Um..."_ Just as Steven had trouble expressing himself when the new sensation came over, so was Rose not the best person in explaining it, especially since their situation was unique. _"It's pretty much as if you were a different being with different memories, and even different body parts. What is that thing dangling between your legs, anyway?"_ Yes, Rose really had to dive there. She was pretty much as immature and excitable as Steven was, very occasionally. They shared more in common than it would seem at first sight, and it was a shame that they shared too much.

"Er..." Steven felt uneasy about jumping straight to the difficult questions.

_"Nevermind me, I know already. Greg has one, after all."_

"Oh, okay. So, are you just going to do your shapeshift thing and make the amends and everything?"

_"Only if you're absolutely ready."_

"Alright, bring it on."

_"What I'll need you to do is to focus on the picture with all your mentality, and in particular look at Greg, not myself. Understood?"_

"Gotcha. So, goodbye, mom?"

_"Later, Steven."_ With those last words, Steven looked at the picture even more intensely, almost holding it to his face, but still remaining fairly calm. It was still nighttime, so it was kind of hard to note all the intricate details of the picture, but surely, Steven was able to notice the regularity of the teeth in the hot dog and the thick eyebrows, almost as thick as his own.

And, with that notion, Steven's body began glowing and underwent a transformation.

He immediately noted that he grew significantly taller, and with that every part of his body became thicker. His hair began growing heavier, and only due to luck the curls (which were also becoming bright pink) did not get in the way between the eyes and the picture. His face also seemed to get heavier, especially on his lips. His upper torso showed growth in two parts symmetrical from the chest area, and his clothes changed appropriately to fit and partially expose the protrusions, in the process getting brighter. In his lower half, the clothing surrounded and swept away his usual shorts, making a beautiful multi-leveled skirt. It also appeared as if grass was growing right underneath him; that was his sandals disappearing and leaving him barefoot. Lastly, part of the clothing unwrapped the belly, where the gem was, and it became surrounded by a star-shaped hole in the dress.

Steven immediately wanted to check out this new body, but felt that he couldn't move anything anymore. In fact, he had a hard time even thinking about himself. As he - nay, _she_ \- stood now, the form of her body was indistinguishable from that of Rose Quartz. In fact, it _was_ Rose Quartz - and just as she had originally, after his birth, been an observer of his life, so was he condemned to be subject of everything that Rose did.

* * *

Rose Quartz looked away from the picture containing her dearest memories and began to survey the surroundings.

It was a part of the Strawberry Battlefield, where she fought over five thousand years ago. But right then and there, the memories came to her as if it was yesterday. She and Pearl were standing on this very platform, during the night before the biggest battle, conversing so that they would be sure that their compatriots were alright.

_"Please, please understand: if we lose, we'll be killed, and if we win, we can never go home."_ She felt herself saying.

_"But why would I ever want to go home, if you're here?"_ The voice of Pearl rang back to her, reminding her of everything that she loved about her sole confidante.

_"My Pearl."_

_"You're wonderful..."_

She then held out her hand, as if Pearl was really there. However, instead of Pearl there was still the picture of herself and Greg. With that, she was also reminded that comparing her love to Pearl and her love to Greg would be impossible; both had aspects of their own which complemented each other.

But right now, Greg didn't matter. Steven had specifically mentioned that Pearl was heartbroken, and therefore, Pearl had to be taken care of first.

Rose swiftly jumped from the platform and onto where Leo was. She was able to do this in a single leap, since she could float and everything. She then went inside Leo and put the photo back to its original place, next to the chest where she had various other paraphernalia. She was about to go back out, but caught an eye of her Mr. Universe tee. She considered wearing it briefly, but decided against it, because otherwise Pearl wouldn't recognize her.

Rose thus went back out and patted Leo, who was still sitting there, as he was doing it for a couple of hours. "Steven has really trained you, hasn't he?" She chuckled to herself again and walked over to the warp pad, ready to go back to the Crystal Temple to meet her lifelong friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's idiotisms: Because "if Steven poofs, Rose Quartz will come back and Steven will never be able to come back" isn't nearly dark enough for _my_ standards.
> 
> I've always loved writing about Rose. Most of the time, though, I was actually writing about Rose _Lalonde_.
> 
> Update #1: Not as major as you think it is. At the request of "Demon Monkey" on FanFiction.Net.


	2. Human Needs

When Rose arrived at the Crystal Temple, she immediately noticed a very major detail. The warp pad surrounding the Temple was no longer just conveniently placed outside the temple, but now had what looked like a human house built over it. The human house was composed of a single room, with a kitchen and a counter to Rose's left, a staircase and a much more personal space to her right, a door and a window in front of her, through which the night could still be seen, as emphasized by the fact that the lights were on, and a giant portrait painting of herself hanging over the door and the window. She almost mistook the painting for a mirror, but quickly realized that it was too high up to function as a mirror, and the background of the portrait did not match the actual door to the Crystal Temple behind her.

[Since this was a highly personal environment to Steven as well, he briefly came into focus. It was still too difficult to do anything in this state, though, and Steven passed away, jumping to the next moment.]

Rose continued to look, and almost immediately she noted that all her other teammates - the so-called "Crystal Gems" - were up to something in the human house. Pearl was (at least originally) cleaning the counter, and Rose noted that she now had a ribbon tied over her waist, as if her teammate had suffered a recent back stab. Amethyst was looking around the elevated area, likely messing around with either her own or Steven's belongings, and had one of her straps on her shoulder (the other one still hung weirdly), and looked bigger than she was before. Garnet was sitting by the small table right next to the elevated area, and had changed the least of them all: part of her glasses was now pointed, instead of round.

However, Rose could only assume that since the warp pad made a rather loud noise, all three Crystal Gems turned their attention to her. As Rose had been informed beforehand, Pearl was the most distraught by her mentor's sudden appearance, and shrieked in a voice that was clearly not her normal speaking voice: " _Steven! What do you think you're doing?!_ "

Amethyst followed, enjoying the experience, rather than overreacting as Pearl. "Yo, Ste-man! Pretty dope shapeshifting, I must say! You really got P scared over there!" She laughed, while Pearl just looked across the counter and up to the elevated part: "Amethyst! That is not funny!" Amethyst then ran away from the elevated part to the barrier between the house and the warp pad, looking at Rose. _Just as agile as I remember her_ , she mused to herself.

"Is this a bad time? I can leave..." Rose, worried that she might have messed up enough by simply appearing here, didn't want to cause any more trouble.

"Nah, but you might want to turn back to yourself, Steven. Like this." In front of Rose, Amethyst changed her form to resemble that of a preteen man with dark curls, a shirt with a star on it, shorts and sandals; Rose presumed that Steven looked like this, but obviously not purple. " _Hey, Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet, it's me! Steven! You totally fell for my prank, didn't you? Now you get to be scared, just like I was during pretty much all missions we went to!_ " Amethyst laughed at her own impression of Steven, then returned to her original form. This only served to scare Pearl more, and she hid behind the counter, preferring not to see that which was right in front of them.

Rose, though, was confused by what the Crystal Gems - or at least Pearl and Amethyst - were insisting. "What do you mean? Why would I do that? I am not Steven. Why would I say that I am Steven? That would be lying."

"Yeah, but how can you prove it? I mean, you have his gem and all." Amethyst pointed to the cutout where the pink gemstone with a pentagonal facet was showing.

"You're a little confused. Don't you mean that _he_ has _my_ gem? I came first, you know." The more she talked to the others, the more Rose wished she wasn't here. Maybe it was better to just let the sleeping dogs lie. Maybe.

"Oh, sorry! I meant that you have _her_ gem. Forgot that I was talking to Steven."

"What? I just said that I am not Steven." Rose didn't even consider the fact that the first part of her heartfelt reunion would be about her convincing everyone that she is not Steven. It was supposed to be about meeting the gems once again and tying all ends that might have come loose. And maybe seeing how Beach City had changed over the years.

[As Steven's name was called out each time, he turned his attention. He was still too weak to even speak via Rose's voice, so he returned to what felt like being inside Lion's mane, being unable to breathe and all, but much more permanent, as his body wasn't his anymore.]

"Yeah, right." Amethyst looked back to Pearl and Garnet and told them "Yo, can anyone help me fix Steven?" Unfortunately for her, Pearl was hiding in the bathroom, so Garnet was the only viable option. She walked over to the barrier between "worlds", standing next to Amethyst, and looked at Rose in an intimidating silence.

After what seemed like forever, Garnet finally spoke. "What would Rose Quartz know that Steven wouldn't know?"

"Hmm." While Steven was still the dominant personality in them, Rose couldn't particularly think of any of her memories very clearly, but now that she was in control, she thought about everything that she knew about herself, looking for parts that Steven was still too young to know about.

"Let's just shoot at random and see if it works. The thirteen hundreds! AD, of course." Amethyst declared.

"Well," Rose began, being given a direction to follow, "the Black Plague was spreading throughout Europe, and we had set up a shop. I, though, traveled around houses, healing as many people as I knew with healing tears, and got the title of-"

"The Rogue Healing Witch." Garnet finished the memory for Rose. "Good thing you were there, or else half of all Europeans would have died."

"Yeah, good thing that only a third of them died." Amethyst laughed.

In the bathroom, Pearl overheard the conversation. She was fairly confident that she had never told Steven that, and therefore this was at least part of the confirmation that it _wasn't_ Steven who had appeared on the warp pad - or any corrupted gem, as the so-called "Black Plague" wasn't spread by corrupted gems. She thus walked back to the main part of the house and stepped on the barrier, taking the empty space to Amethyst's other side.

"Wow!" Pearl spoke. "Sorry I didn't believe you about-"

"I'm not done yet." Garnet held out her hand to Pearl, then put it down and remembered the other part of her test. "What would _Steven_ know that _Rose Quartz_ wouldn't know?"

"How did Steven first meet Connie?" Pearl asked, hoping to follow the ambiguous directions that Garnet gave.

"Wow. Well... I have no idea, but... if I were to guess, it would be..." Even when fully in control, Rose still didn't seem to have any of Steven's memories, or at least wasn't able to consciously access them.

"It's really her." Garnet concluded, and Rose stopped thinking about Steven. This far into being herself, she was still worried that Steven would randomly surface, but then again, _she_ didn't remember surfacing during Steven's lifetime, so maybe it was okay.

"Heya, Rose! Sorry about the Steven part. You have to admit, though; it was still a good prank." Amethyst laughed to herself.

"Welcome back, Rose! Should I show you around the future?" Pearl offered.

"No, it's okay. Well, it's probably not okay since you kept being convinced that I was my shapeshifting son, and others would probably think the same, but at least I can take a walk in Beach City." Rose stepped forward, looking as only a purple shadow remained where Amethyst originally was. She then walked up to the door, but realized that it was rather low for herself, and with her... _unique_ figure, she wouldn't be exiting the house anytime soon. (Unless, of course, she shapeshifted again, but she was still worried about the consequences of doing that in an organic body. She certainly didn't want cat heads growing on _her_ body.)

"Or not." Garnet looked back at Rose, noting the same predicament that she was facing.

"Alright, Rose, we'll catch ya later! Don't mess anything up while we're on a mission." Amethyst waved to her.

"Don't you want to go on a mission as well?" Even when she was slowly getting used to the fact that Rose was here, Pearl still didn't know how to talk to her.

"Sorry, but no. I should still get used to being myself once again." Rose declined.

"It's good to see at least some of you again, Rose." Garnet said the Crystal Gems' last words as all three stepped on the warp pad and disappeared.

"Nice to see you too." Rose waved to her friends, smiling.

* * *

Once she was alone, Rose could give the house that was built in her absence a better look.

"Could", though, was the key word here. First, she had to get accustomed to all the perils of having an organic body. Even during the brief time that she had, she had noticed that when her fingers touched, it wasn't the same feeling of pure light that she was used to. Instead, the fingers just felt like meat, not unlike Greg's. She was also quick to notice that during the entire presence, her chest had been unconsciously lifting up and down, and air was alternating between entering her body and leaving it. She wondered what would happen if she had simply... stopped. She thus sat down by the table across the kitchen, firmly closed her mouth and her nostrils and waited.

About a minute later, she was desperately grasping for a breath, the flow of air getting heavier than before, and the surroundings suddenly felt more real, as if she was more awake. It seemed that this was actually a natural part of being a human, and it was better to just let it go.

Though, Rose couldn't help the notion of slight fatigue and wanting to be near water, which was distinctly not like the breathing thing.

"Where do humans typically store water?" She stood up, careful to not knock the table over, and looked at the kitchen. There was the typical assortment of spoons, forks, glasses, plates and other eating utensils that humans used, as well as what humans called "a fridge". Rose opened the fridge, but couldn't find anything even resembling water, so she closed the white wardrobe almost immediately. Then, though, she noticed a "tap" - a handle attached to the metal hose - and pulled the handle, thus filling the sink underneath the tap with water.

"Oh, right, the glass." Rose picked up a glass that was between the utensils, and held it to the tap. However, she noticed that she was holding the glass upside-down, and therefore water didn't want to stay in the glass. Sighing and realizing that there is still a lot to learn about humans, she turned the glass upside down, waited until the water completely filled it, then pulled the handle on the tap once again. She then held the glass to her mouth and began pouring water inside, as she had seen humans (and Amethyst) do so. She was careful to not have any of it drip on her clothes, since that was apparently one of the dangers of drinking water.

After emptying the glass and putting it back to its place, however, Rose had felt another sensation: that of the same water filling her abdomen and wanting to come out of between her legs.

She thought about how humans often said that they needed to go to "the bathroom". She was able to surmise that this was, in fact, the alternative to pouring water all over your clothes and the floor. Rose thus looked around, trying to find this mythical "bathroom" place, and eventually found herself facing another door, not unlike hers, that opened and revealed another strange white object inside it. It was still trouble actually getting inside, but Rose eventually learned that if she slightly crouched and went in sideways, she could just _barely_ squeeze herself through.

Once Rose was inside the bathroom, she closed the door and opened a lid on the white appliance, revealing a small pool of water. "Water to water", she supposed and began lifting layers of her dress so she could sit on the appliance, but stopped just as she reached the last layer and could grab her crotch, remembering the "dangling thing" talk she had with Steven.

To her surprise, there was no dangling thing to be found between her legs.

Getting more confused, Rose sat down at the appliance, making sure her crotch was right above the small pool, and let the water inside her flow. The flow had a calming effect on her, making her yawn a bit and be overtaken by the same fatigue as before; just not related to water this time.

Once all the water got outside of her, she stood up and closed the appliance, but then noticed a button on it. Supposing that it doesn't hurt to try, she pushed the button, and suddenly the appliance itself started to generate its own water. She figured that it was simply the appliance's method of keeping itself clean, and having spent enough time in the bathroom, struggled to get outside the room in the same "sideways and crouching" fashion.

As she got back into the room, she noticed a human bed on the elevated part of the house. She climbed upwards using the stairs, and sat down on the bed. It felt really soft, and only served to remind her that she was still not feeling all that well and needed a rest. The nighttime sky, which she noted through another window on the wall where the elevated part was, also was another reminder.

Before she knew it, Rose placed both her head and her legs onto the bed, and eventually, stopped thinking about everything.

* * *

_Rose was in the pink cloud environment that was all too familiar to her. It was the design of her own room within the Crystal Temple, in which objects were forming out of clouds when and only when she wanted to. However, there was another, humanoid shape that didn't look like a cloud, standing across her. Rose walked forward, hoping to meet the figure._

_It turned out to be practically identical to the form Amethyst made, imitating Steven, but in color. This time, his shirt was red, the star was orange, the shorts were blue, the sandals were a dark pink and the skin was peach, not unlike that of her own, as well as of humans. Rose concluded that this was indeed Steven, standing across her on the room. He spoke: "Oh, hey, Mom. I mean, I'm kind of getting used to Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl taking care of me, but you're the real mom who had to give up her physical form, after all."_

_"It's good to see you, Steven." Rose smiled at the actual sight of his son, and the sensation of not being trapped in the same body as him. "I just have one question. What is this place?"_

_"This place? I suppose it is where people go in dreams. They make up various stuff that doesn't really exist - or make sense, for that matter..."_

_"Dreams?" It was another of those human things, wasn't it?_

_"Yeah? It's a thing you do when you go to sleep. I don't think gems go to sleep, though..."_

_"Occasionally, they do. I've seen Amethyst sleep at least a couple of times." Rose remembered._

_"Yeah, she indulges in a lot of human stuff. Maybe she's trying to make me feel more like a gem?"_

_"It is possible." Remembering the conversation with Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet, Rose inquired. "Um, can I ask you a question?"_

_"Yes?" Steven smiled._

_"How did you meet Connie?"_

_"Oh, it was pretty fun. I opened my bubble for the first time, and it protected Connie from falling debris of the temple. But then we got stuck in the bubble, and pretty much had to make friends to get out, and then there was this gem monster that I cleverly spun around the boardwalk so it made it collapse, and then Connie was excited at seeing me, and..."_

_Rose giggled. "Your voice is so beautiful."_

_Steven shrugged. "Yeah, Pearl said I sounded like you. Anyway, I'm pretty used to human stuff, so if there is anything that troubles you, you can just ask. Have you talked to Pearl yet?"_

_Rose blushed. "Not really? Well, not about the amends. Just a conversation where she was horrified, thinking you were actually shapeshifting."_

_"Yeah, that sounds like Pearl."_

_"You really are my favorite son." Rose held her hands out for Steven._

_"And you're my favorite mom." Steven took the hands, and before they knew it, both were in a hug. They both were very happy to actually see each other, (sort of) in person, for the first time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's idiotisms: I've been writing 3K word chapters every day already. Where was this when I actually needed it during Camp NaNoWriMo?
> 
> Tune in next time for the Steven Universe equivalent of all the Portal fanfics that talk about Wheatley becoming a human.
> 
> Update #1: see chapter 1.


	3. Servant Class

Rose awoke with sunlight shining through the lower window, shrouding the entire wall with her portrait in darkness. She looked around the bed and saw various posters, toys and video games. For a while, she mused about what life as Steven would be like, but then she remembered that if she concentrated on Steven's memories too much, he would inadvertently come back. She thus instead decided to look out the window, where she saw the all-familiar beach and part of the statue that she and her fellow Crystal Gems unfortunately nicknamed "the Temple Fusion".

Instead, she let her mind wander, momentarily forgetting about Steven. She instead thought about the other Beach City residents that surely had their own lives by know. People such as Greg, the human friend Amethyst had made named Vidalia, Mr. Smiley and many, many others had known of how Rose "gave up her physical form" so that Steven could be born, and with however many years that had passed, were likely to move on past her, with only three gems with four gemstones as their guardians, and a fifth one being no more than an excitable child.

How were the Crystal Gems holding up, anyway? They seemed to at least somewhat care for Steven, as they were scared once he disappeared, and couldn't accept the fact that she could be back, even just for a moment. But at the same time, there was the feeling that she had left them, and nothing could fix that...

"Rose." Someone in the house spoke. Rose immediately recognized it as Pearl.

"Yes, Pearl?" Rose turned away from the window, and her eyes met the pale face.

"When I first heard your voice through Steven's mouth, I realized that there were so many things I never got to tell you. I was excited to tell you everything about the future and how things have changed since you had Steven, but now, I seem to have forgotten everything."

"It's about Leo, isn't it." Rose thought back to yesterday.

"Leo?" Pearl batted an eye at the term she had never heard of previously.

"The lion."

"Oh. Steven just called him Lion, so I assumed that was his name." Pearl struggled to keep the conversation going.

"I never told you about him since I wanted for him to be the connection between me and Steven. I knew I couldn't be there for him, so Leo as a whole is my present to him."

"Well, you two do have the same gem..." Pearl nervously giggled. "Don't worry, Pearl. I still love you, and I'm pretty sure Steven loves you as well." Instead of responding, Pearl broke into tears. She hugged Rose, and the two looked through the window together, admiring the beauty of the world and how they have each other to see it.

Rose, though, continued to stare blankly at the landscape. "This isn't working. I made sure our case was closed before I left, and I felt fine about it..."

"But I was not. Eventually, the only thing that helped... was to think about Steven more." Pearl continued crying.

"I promise to only leave when you are fine about me leaving this time." Rose sighed, and the two continued their moment, hugging each other.

The moment, though, was interrupted by another weird human sensation that Rose felt. This time, her stomach was emitting a sound, and since Pearl had hung around a human being for long enough, she knew that Rose needed something to eat. "Oh, hey, sorry that you need what humans need. I'll bake you pancakes." Pearl got away from Rose and descended to the kitchen. Soon enough, the sound of pans and cutting boards hitting just about everything imaginable could be heard, and Rose wondered what these human "pancakes" would taste like.

As she couldn't be distracted any longer, she looked down, back to Steven's personal belongings. Just then, one of them began emitting an electronic sound, and something appeared on its previously black screen. There were two simple lines of text, "INCOMING CALL - CONNIE", separated by a rotating horn thing, and two buttons, one green, one red, both depicting the same horn thing.

"That is a telephone," Pearl explained to Rose as she looked back to see the sound. "You swipe your finger from green to red and then put the phone to your ear." Careful to not throw the phone away, Rose placed one of her fingers on the green button, swiped to the red button and didn't even watch as the elements of the screen changed; the phone needed to be by the ear.

" _Steven?_ " a voice spoke on the phone.

"Why is everyone assuming that I'm Steven?" Rose spoke back. The person on the other end of the phone emitted a grunt; she could tell that the voice wasn't that of Steven's, or any other Crystal Gem's.

" _I'm sorry, ma'am. Who are you, then? And what happened to Steven?_ "

"Rose Quartz, nice to meet you. Let's just say... that Steven and I can't both exist."

" _But I thought you were dead... um... I'll be there quick._ " After this response, there was a click, and when Rose pulled the phone away from her ear, she noted that the pattern on the screen changed once again. Without doing anything else to the appliance, she put it down and turned to Pearl. The process of eating had just begun, and as even sitting seemed to exhaust the human body, Rose lay again. She didn't feel the same fatigue as in the evening, though, and therefore didn't proceed to "dream".

"Humans have a lot of different sensations. Being a gem was much simpler." She spoke to herself as she waited for the pancakes to be made.

"Well, the only person who you could talk to about it is not really here." Pearl spoke back.

"Greg?"

"Sorry, I meant Steven. Greg is still alive, as far as I know."

"Should I use your communication device to talk to Greg?" Rose asked.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, since even we, the Crystal Gems, were freaked out about your sudden appearance and... now someone's coming." Pearl turned her attention away from the kitchen to look at the beach, where Connie was running upstairs. Rose, curious about what Pearl saw, stepped downstairs, but as she was descending on the last step, Connie slammed the door open and stepped in, heavily breathing. She wore a cyan dress with a string tied around the dress, emphasizing her waist. Rose was startled by the sound, lost balance and fell over.

"Hey, Steven...'s mother?" Connie looked at the plump woman dressed in pink, who had collapsed in front of her.

"Rose! Is everything okay?" Pearl ran to the door, ignoring the fact that she was still cooking. Rose used her arms to push herself away from the ground, and Connie and Pearl both helped her get back into standing position.

"I apologize for the unceremonious entrance." Rose said, blowing the dust off of her. She looked down at her gem, checking for cracks. Luckily, there were none.

"So. Nice to meet you? You look just like the portrait! Where's Steven?" Connie looked at Rose in the face, and Rose looked back. At the sight of the human, though, something turned inside Rose, and she felt as if she was losing herself. Rose thus diverted her eyes from Connie.

"Even in gem terms, that will be hard to explain." Pearl looked at Connie condescendingly, before also turning away from her and going back to cooking. She flipped the pancake, so its other side could cook.

"No way! I can totally understand gem stuff. Go on, explain!" Connie took Rose to the couch by the table, both so they could eat breakfast and so there would be a more personal environment for the two to talk. Rose, however, was still looking away from Connie, trying to not even think of her face.

"You've fused with Steven, right?" Rose wanted confirmation of what Steven told her, so that she could trust her environment, instead of it being another dream.

"Yeah?" Connie wanted to know the angle that Rose was getting at.

"How did it feel?"

"Well, it felt like I was with Steven in... somewhere, but our fusion was also in there, and the three of us... were sort of rivaling for attention. If we let go... of our differences, Stevonnie would be dominant and..." Connie's sentences were split in unusual places, likely as a consequence of her still needing to take heavy breaths after running all the way from her own home to Steven's.

"Stevonnie?" Rose was puzzled over the strange non-word.

"When we first met it... _them_ , Amethyst just mashed their names together, and it stuck with us." Pearl filled Rose in.

"Oh, alright." Rose looked at the wooden wall, since it seemed to carry the least memories of everything in the house. "You see, something similar is happening with me and Steven, except there is no amalgam personality to take over both of us, so most of the time, one of us is there, being happy with their life."

"But?" Connie hoped to continue what Rose began saying.

"If something highly personal to the other person appears, the other person will also appear."

"Is this why you have been looking away from me while we were here?"

Rose closed her eyes, taking another breath, and, after a while, opened them again. "...Yes."

"Exactly how bad are the effects on you?" Even if there was magical stuff involved, not being able to see the face of the person she was talking to was unsavory to Connie. Rude, even.

"Is that a dare?" In the background, the fire was turned off, pancakes placed elegantly on plates and put on the tables. As a servant class gem, Pearl knew just how to do what people want you to do while intruding as little as possible to other people's personal affairs.

"Rose, I'm your son's friend. This is kind of a touching matter on both of us." As the meal was prepared, Pearl stood behind, listening to Rose and Connie's conversation.

"Alright." Neither Rose nor Connie had touched their meals yet, and both simultaneously decided that they weren't going to until they were done with the experiment. Rose closed her eyes once again, turned to the side of the table where Connie was, and opened them again.

Immediately, Rose shivered, and Connie noted that Rose was actually physically uneasy, rather than just considering her unattractive. As Rose and Connie intensely stared at each other, a voice suddenly jumped out, speaking from Rose's lips but in the distinct "Steven-y" personality: _"Hey, Connie! How's my mom?"_ As the words were said, Rose instinctively looked away from Connie once again, before turning back.

"She's great. But apparently there is something separating us, since she keeps looking away from me."

_"Yeah, that is sort of the deal. We had a bit of trouble in my first conversation with her too."_

"Steven?" Pearl finally recognized what was going on with the fact that Rose's personality drastically changed.

"What?" Rose turned to Pearl. Connie decided to begin her meal. Rose was tempted to as well, but had no idea how to even begin eating human food.

"Oh, sorry, Rose. I guess you already explained everything!" Pearl nervously laughed, and Rose looked at the plate. There were the pancakes, along with what humans called "a fork" and "a knife".

"Okay, how do you..." Rose wanted to ask Connie how to begin eating, but realized that humans don't want to speak while eating, as that would be rude.

"You take the fork and the knife, cut away a small part of the food with the knife, and then put it in your mouth with the fork." Pearl ranted. "I've seen enough of Steven eating to know that."

"Oh, alright." Rose picked up the fork and the knife, both on her right hand, and wondered how to begin cutting the food.

"No, they go to different hands." Pearl sighed at how inefficient her explanation was. Rose took the knife to her left hand, and held them both in fists.

" _No..._ " Pearl sighed once again. "Just look at how Connie holds them." Rose glanced at Connie's hands, sure to not make contact with her face, and noted that the silverware in her hands was held more swiftly. Rose tried to replicate that, but accidentally got a cut on her wrist. A red, thick liquid began pouring out of it.

"How do you even live like a human? How does this make any sense?" Rose started lightly crying, partly over the cut, partly over the red liquid and partly due to still not getting humans entirely, despite being one right now.

Realizing the truth about "healing tears", Pearl swiped some of the tears that Rose cried and put them on the wound. The wound closed, and using a towel, Pearl was able to wipe the red liquid away. She then placed the fork and the knife in Rose's hands correctly, folding the fingers as appropriate, and Rose could now begin cutting the food.

She had one more question, though. "What was the red liquid?"

"Blood." Pearl only answered, and watched as Rose began eating, while Connie was already in the middle of the process.

* * *

Due to the incidents, Connie ended up finishing eating first. She turned to Pearl and asked: "Wait, so exactly how much did you miss her?"

"My whole life was dedicated to her," Pearl began reminiscing. "Ever since I was assigned to her, I did my best to follow her orders, and the mentality continued when we were already Crystal Gems. She told me a lot of her secrets, and for a time, I even felt like we saw each other as equals, but the truth remained. I was a Pearl, someone made to serve others, and only she could tell me what to do. Now that she's gone, all of what I know about being a Crystal Gem, how to protect the Earth, how to take care of Steven... was in her memory."

While Rose was getting the hang of eating, she heard what Pearl said about her. She raised a finger, as if wanting to say something, but realizing humans didn't say anything while they were eating. Since Pearl understood the gesture, she put her finger on her mouth, asking Connie to be silent, and she nodded.

Once Rose noted that no large chunks of edible material were on the plate, she looked at Pearl. "You mean... you never felt a sense of individuality? That you could do something on your own?"

"Why would I?" Pearl said, inexplicably excited.

"Because if not, you will always want me around to tell you what to do. You need to realize that the only person who can tell you what to do is yourself."

"But... how would I be able to do that?"

Rose looked at Pearl, confused. Clearly the dynamics of the Crystal Gems were only working when she was still a gem looking to protect the Earth, and the others followed her path, but now, they had literally lost a sense of direction. She first thought about staying here, leaving Steven inside the gem, so that the balance would be unbroken, but then she realized that she needed to remain in the past. Steven was a growing boy who was about to have his own life, while she was the one who needed to accept that her role had been ended. The Crystal Gems, though, were a psychological mess which needed additional guidance, since none of them could handle Rose being gone, and while Garnet had her relationship and Amethyst had her quirky personality, Pearl was completely lost.

"I suppose I need to teach you, then." Rose stood up, walked next to Pearl and extended her hands. Pearl took them, and they held hands together for a while.

"I would do anything... I mean, I realize now that I need to move past you." Suddenly, Pearl felt broken on the inside. This would be easier said than done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's idiotisms: Yeah, so I messed up. I thought that Rose Quartz was actually significantly taller than Garnet, while Story for Steven reveals that they were around the same height (minus Rose's fluffy curls).
> 
> Tune in next time for the Steven Universe version of Self/less. Oh, who am I kidding, no one even bothered to pirate that movie.
> 
> Also, you have to realize: writing 3K chapters is unnatural for me. Until I get used to the format, the chapters will actually be slightly shorter.


	4. Heartfelt Reunions

"So, would anyone care to explain to me what is going on between you two?" Connie glanced at Rose and Pearl while they were holding hands. The more she stayed with Steven and his friends, the more she was weirded out, but the fact that his presumably dead mother had come back to life at the expense of himself really took the cake.

"Connie, you should tell Greg that Rose is here. He's at the van next to the It's A Wash." Pearl looked back at Connie.

"But Pearl, wouldn't that make him unnecessarily worried for Steven? He would think that I killed him." Rose called out.

"He'll be fine. He didn't think that Steven killed you, after all." Pearl shook it off.

"I obviously was absent when that happened, so I am going to assume that you are right." Rose was still trying to see the possibilities, but without Garnet's heightened perception, that was proving to be rather difficult.

"Okay, but I'm definitely _not_ running all the way to Greg's van again." While Connie had already regained her strengths after running to Steven's house and then eating breakfast, she didn't want to exhaust herself too quickly again.

"We are going to need Leo for this." Rose finally released Pearl's hands and glanced at the front door. Just then, a roar was heard and an all-familiar pink lion appeared. It appeared as if it could sense Rose's voice anywhere in the world.

"Leo?" Connie turned to where the roar was heard, and saw the lion that she recognized as well. "Oh, you mean Lion."

"Oh, Steven, you goofball." Rose laughed when she learned what Steven apparently called Leo. Even though she had already heard "Lion" before, only now she could register the fact. "Alright, Leo, I want you to take Steven's friend Connie to It's A Wash." Leo nodded, opened another portal by roaring again and swept Connie, so that she was riding him. He then entered the portal and disappeared from Rose and Pearl's sights.

* * *

Connie appeared in what, at first sight, looked like an abandoned warehouse. Though, a closer inspection revealed all the cleaning machines that were inside; Lion, or Leo as Rose called him, had taken her _inside_ the carwash.

Suddenly terrified, Connie ran around the empty building, not even caring that Lion had already disappeared. Both the entrance and the exit for vehicles were locked, while a door to a maintenance room was open, but the door to outside from there was locked. Inadvertently, though, Connie set off an alarm. As it happened, someone inside the nearby van squirmed and picked up a random nearby object, which happened to be a wrench.

"I have a… wrench and I'm not afraid to use it!" The man shouted as he stormed off to the door, then struggled to find his keys to unlock the door. In confusion, he dropped his wrench, which hit his foot. Trying not to scream in pain, he finally grabbed his keys in his pocket, took them out, getting his finger in the ring, and rushed to unlock the door.

What he saw inside there shocked him even more than the pain from the wrench. "Miss Mahes… I mean Connie? How did you get inside the carwash?" After all, Greg knew that Connie also had relations to Steven, and therefore, magic stuff.

"Lion took me. I wanted to tell you…"

Greg's attention, though, was turned to a detail - more specifically, someone _not_ being there. "Steven! Is everything okay with him?"

"Speaking of Steven…" Connie thought of how to break the bad news, and decided on the most subtle way. "Someone at the Crystal Temple has been wanting to meet you, Mr. Universe."

"Is it Garnet?"

"No..." Connie sighed. It was a pain that everyone except Garnet understood.

"Pearl?"

"No, but perhaps…"

Greg suddenly became confused. "Amethyst? She's not really a motherly figure, but…"

"Also no… I wanted to say-"

Before Connie could finish her sentence, the initially confused man suddenly grew in horror. "A gem from Homeworld?"

Connie glanced at what she thought was a green star in the sky, but what she dismissed as a twinkle from her glasses… even though she wasn't wearing glasses at the time. "Is that a gem history thing? Since I certainly wouldn't know _that_."

"Well, I didn't hear that much about it - I mean, Rose could…" Now, Greg was interrupted by Connie clicking her fingers.

"That would be it."

"…Rose? You must be pulling my leg, Miss Maheswaran; Rose Quartz gave up her physical form so that Steven could be born…"

Just then, Lion appeared again like the mischievous animal that he is. He pushed Connie towards Greg. She collapsed on Greg's leg, and he tumbled backwards. As both were lying down, they laughed at the visual pun, but returned to their original expressions soon after. "She could explain this stuff better than we do. Leo? Could you take us back to the Crystal Temple?"

Lion only roared in agreement. He opened another portal, and Greg and Connie rushed inside.

* * *

"Now that Steven's friend is gone, shall we resume the dialogue?" Pearl looked at the disappearing portal, then back at Rose.

"Alright." Rose nodded. "The core of the problem is that you want me to be there and tell you what to do."

"Yes." Pearl regretfully admitted, blushing. "You see, tidying things up is a bit of a hobby for me, since Steven and Amethyst are prone to leaving messes, but that is only a mental disorder, and when we go on missions, typically Garnet leads us."

"Then Garnet is doing a good job. Is there any way to remind me to talk to her after I'm done with you?" Rose glanced around the house once again, seeing if any of these human objects was used to write memories inside.

"I will remind you. Don't you worry about anything." Pearl projected a hologram of Rose once again, which repeated: _Is there any way to remind me..._ before disappearing.

"But... it would seem that there is also an emotional attachment to me, that neither Steven nor Garnet can replace, hence making you miss me." Rose remembered her past conversations with Pearl, all at once, trying to piece together where the relationship had gone, both with her and without her.

"We don't know that yet, okay? Steven's still yet to grow up and Garnet acts nothing like you, so the entirety of the problems still hasn't resolved..."

"And while the entirety of the problems still hasn't been resolved, I remain." Rose sighed. "That is one of our rules."

"You really shouldn't, Rose. Think of it - your body is now organic, and therefore you're subject to all the vulnerabilities of a human..."

" _And_ all the advantages." Rose remembered the fact that Steven was able to fuse with Connie, that one time.

"We still don't know of all those advantages, though. You should really stay out of this; Steven still needs taking care of..."

"You're not going to make this easy, will you." Rose looked away from Pearl and through the door. The outside world was still there, begging to be explored, and yet Pearl was still there, thinking she can resolve all her problems of her own, when it was obvious that she couldn't, even for Steven. (Hehe, even Steven. While Rose was looking away from Pearl, she could afford to make a smile, but not laugh.)

"I am not. It just made me realize that I... You see, I never felt this way until you met Greg, but once you did, I realized that he was replacing the place I held in your world..."

"So, you're in love with me." Rose was still looking away, preferring not to get honest.

"Hehe. Yeah, you could say that." Pearl very nervously laughed. "But you now have Greg, and Greg is supposed to have Steven to bond with..."

"Once again: Steven is not returning." It was very unusual for Rose's voice to change from anything but soothing, and Pearl grew worried. "Not for a while. And as for Greg, I'm pretty sure..." Before Rose could finish her sentence, she saw a pink portal opening, meaning that Leo was finally able to retrieve the guests to the house.

As both Rose and Pearl were able to correctly predict, Connie and Greg stepped out of the portal, just before it closed. Since Connie was already familiar with the environment, she decided to watch the three adults converse from upstairs, being as curious as any child would be.

Greg, though, got lost in the familiar pink curls and a face that he thought he would never see again. "Rose!" He jumped towards the love of his life and stood right next to her, touching his body. The sensation wasn't exactly the same as the last time they did that, more than ten years ago just before Steven was born, but Greg dismissed it as forgetting something.

When Rose embraced Greg with his arms, though, he definitely felt different. It seemed as if this Rose's body was heavier and more... human. It also felt pretty painful. "Rose, I don't think you realize, but you're crushing me right now."

"Oh. Sorry. Still getting used to the body." Rose released Greg, and he stepped back. Pearl thought back to the moment when she was similarly embraced by Greg, and devilishly grinned, thinking that she had finally gotten her revenge.

"Anyway, if you're here... where's Steven?" Greg asked. Instead of answering, Rose turned to Connie, staring at her face. She swerved a bit, feeling the same out-of-body sensation as during other times, and said: "You can ask him anything now."

Greg still didn't know what that meant in gem terms, but then again, the case of Rose and Steven was an unique one, so likely no one knew. This still didn't hide his embarassment when he was stumbling on the simplest question: "Hey... Steven?"

 _"Hey, dad!"_ Rose suddenly spoke in a voice that sounded much more like Steven. _"I see you're meeting mom as well, after as long as I can remember! Get it? Since she was gone during my entire life? ...I keep jumping into the most awkward moments, don't I?"_ As Rose heard this, she turned away, deciding that both Greg and Pearl had had enough of Steven.

Mildly scared, Pearl decided to climb upstairs to watch the scene together with Connie. Greg, though, kept looking at Rose, and she looked back at him. "So... he's literally inside you?"

"That would be an incorrect interpretation," Rose began elaborating. "You see, Steven and I share the same gemstone... and the same organic body."

"Then, wouldn't you just be able to transform into my kid right away, when we decided we wanted a kid?"

"No." Rose said, and with each of her words, Greg became more and more confused. "If I had transformed into a child, that child would still have my memories, my personality and a gem body. Instead, I decided on the human pregnancy process, so that the result would be an actual human being that grows up with age..."

"...but then it turns out that the age is irrelevant, as Steven is as old as he wants to be. Right, we know already." Pearl finished the sentence for Rose. Connie glanced to where Pearl was sitting, next to her, and sneered her eyes due to the rude interruption.

"Woah, Steven can do that? Why didn't you tell me?" Greg glanced at Pearl.

"Yeah? His older self just wasn't around to meet you, because he knew that only we can help a gem with his gem problems." Pearl began patronizing Greg.

"Also... exactly how old are we talking?"

"Let's see... white hair, almost all bald except for the moustache and beard, wrinkles on his face..." Pearl began listing the traits of old Steven, projecting him onto the lower floor, between Rose and Greg.

"Woah! That's even older than I am!" Greg was thoroughly shocked by Pearl's description and the hologram, just before it disappeared before his eyes.

"I wonder how I would look like if I wanted to imitate that. For obvious purposes, though, I will not participate in shapeshifting while in this organic form." Rose glanced upwards, trying to think of what she would look like. Obviously she would not have a beard, since she is what humans know as "female"...

"Okay, okay. Let's get back to Steven. And you had to disappear because...?" Greg got back onto the point.

"You see, sometimes an object that is particularly close to a gemstone acts as the cage for the gemstone, not allowing to escape. Steven, as a fetus, had become such an object, and as such I disappeared, only leaving behind him. You might also know the effect from... Pearl, what about that mirror with the blue raindrop gem?" Rose looked at Pearl once again.

"Steven released it. It turned out to be a gem named Lapis Lazuli, who then _stole our ocean..._ " Pearl very obviously still held a grudge against Lapis.

"And we went on a mission to bring it back!" Greg threw his arms up in the air. "Eventually, Steven convinced Lapis not to fight us, and went up to the ocean, where he healed Lapis's gem with his healing spit. She then got to Homeworld, and I don't know of the rest of the tale. At least, that's what Steven told me."

"Healing... spit?" Rose looked at Greg, then took a sample of her own saliva, wondering if it had healing powers as well.

"And bad stuff is going to happen. Homeworld now knows of us and is going to attack us one way or another, and it's all Steven's fault. _And_ he isn't even here to apologize!" Pearl crossed her arms, while Connie finally realized that she wasn't wearing glasses, and that the green star really _was_ something in the sky. Was it a Homeworld ship, ready to destroy the entire human race with a single flick of the wrist?

Connie shuddered at the thought, but was interrupted by Greg again. "Speaking of Lapis. I've been getting back into music! I wrote this song, inspired by her stealing the ocean. Come to my van! I'll sing it to you. I also drew an album cover!"

Rose smiled at Greg, knowing that even he somehow got back into his music business. Perhaps Pearl needed a similar hobby to keep herself occupied. "Alright, Leo. I want you to take us to It's A Wash again."

"Not the carwash _itself,_ though." Connie added. She didn't want to scare anyone again.

"Sorry, then. I want you to take us to just outside It's A Wash." Leo appeared in the room, and opened another portal. Rose and Greg stepped through, holding hands, and Pearl followed, having swept Connie and swiftly descended the stairs.

* * *

"Woah, Leo? So his name is not Lion?" Greg said, as soon as he and Rose stepped through the portal.

"I know that Steven's been calling him Lion. You should not be reminding me every now and then." Rose giggled once again, and Greg opened the back of his van, looking for his guitar. As Pearl exited the portal, she made sure to drop Connie on her legs, as humans apparently do not like when they stand on anything but their legs.

When Greg pulled his guitar and the album cover out, he passed the cover to Connie, who got Pearl and Rose to stand around her and look. The cover depicted a blue gem - Pearl and Rose recognized this as Lapis, and Connie just shrugged, thinking that maybe this was accurate - behind a water stream that was flowing… upwards? The cover was titled "Water Witch".

"Alright, folks. Mr. Universe is back in action with… Riptide Queen, from the soon-to-be album Water Witch!" Greg returned to how he acted in his younger days, as he demonstratively plugged in the guitar and began shredding chords. " _Well, she's a riptide queen and she's super mean!_ "

Just then, Greg's musical equipment inexplicably shut off. He tried getting more chords in, but they just sounded like ordinary guitar, rather than electric guitar. Rose then spoke. "That is so historically inaccurate on so many levels. Haven't you even heard of what Lapis used to be?"

Pearl then turned to Rose. "No, we haven't. But you seem to make it out as if _you_ have."

"Well, then, sit down and put your guitars down, since it's time for a story of a lost gem's rise and fall."

Connie then tugged on Rose's dress. "Is it really a good time? I mean, you still have to pull yourself together."

"That's what Lapis thought as well," Rose continued, ignoring Connie, while Greg reluctantly put his guitar back, thinking that he will never be a musician again. "In fact, why don't we start from the beginning?"

"You knew _that_ and you still wanted to protect us. Don't you know you can wholeheartedly trust me?" Pearl had begun losing her mind.

Just as Pearl said that, though, a deafening noise started to be heard from the Crystal Temple. It sounded oddly periodical, and as it happened, it shattered windows in the distance, likely in the beach house.

"The story will have to wait. Leo, back to the house by the Temple Fusion." Rose said. As Leo obliged once again and the troupe stepped through, Rose sighed, knowing that there were more important matters than a silly story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's idiotisms: Issuing corrections (that would require replacing more than just a few words) again, as well as things I wanted to say:
> 
> 1) Chille Tid actually reveals that Garnet is too tall for the door to Steven's room, so I didn't mess _that_ part up.
> 
> 2) Yes, you are right; since Rose's Scabbard was actually the first part of a StevenBomb, we're going to see the rest of it, except with Rose instead of Steven. (Cue all the "Jasper was right" comments.)
> 
> 3) I'm talking to myself and comparing myself to episodes since I haven't been receiving reviews. Just saying.


	5. Distress Signal

When Rose, Pearl, Greg and Connie came through the portal, at the house they were met by Garnet, Amethyst and an old-fashioned stone-like object that was emitting a loud sound from the hole in its upper half. Garnet and Amethyst were already covering their ears due to the sound, and the arrivees soon followed.

"A Wailing Stone." Rose immediately identified the object.

"Correct, and it's sending a signal." Garnet concluded.

"We rounded up all the Wailing Stones on Earth and we're not sending a message to ourselves, unless..." Pearl began analyzing the situation, before realizing that she might know what is going on, and looking down to see someone smaller than her. " _Amethyst?_ " She said sternly.

"Hey, I ain't the one sending anything this time! Case in point: I also want it to shut up." Amethyst waved her hand, first in front of Pearl, then at her ears. "Agh! I can't take it anymore!" She shrieked, sounding even more stupid than she usually did.

" _I'll_ make it shut up." Garnet summoned one of her gauntlets and hit the button on the top of the Wailing Stone, making it stop emitting sound. She kept the gauntlet at the stone, making sure that this wasn't just a weird side effect, and after a few seconds, raised her hand and made the gauntlet disappear. The Stone remained silent for a while, as its button was still depressed, but soon enough, it returned to its original position, and the Stone began emitting the same sound, which now sounded even worse than before.

" _Noo!_ What are we gonna _do?_ " Amethyst shouted again.

"Well, _maybe_ we can just bubble it." Pearl raised the Stone and put it in a bubble. The sound stopped, seemingly forever.

"Whew." Greg prematurely said. He could only watch as his words were very quickly proven wrong when the bubble increased in size and popped, dropping the Stone, which resumed emitting the sound.

"Why do none of the ideas we have work?" Amethyst sighed, covering her ears for real this time.

"I _might_ have an idea." Connie leaped towards the Stone.

" _Connie, no!_ " The four gems and Greg shouted all at once, but it was too late. She had already attempted to stick her hand through the hole in the Stone, but her hand turned out to be too thin. The sound had almost deafened her when Garnet pulled her away from the Stone. She then stuffed a pillow inside the hole, and the proverbial wailing stopped. Garnet then picked up the rest of the pillows from the couch, placed them all onto the stone, and finished her structure by making Connie sit on top of the pillows.

"If the possibility of a message within Earth is eliminated, that means a gem must be sending this from space." Garnet realized.

"I've never heard a Wailing Stone being used since the rebellion," Pearl reminisced, "and I've _certainly_ never heard one sound like _that_."

"Is this some sort of gem language? Since it sounds more like music than a language." Connie asked.

"No, dear, of course not." Rose was quick to reply.

"But it's not supposed to be music, it's supposed to be a _message_." Pearl looked at the pillowed Stone, confused. "Of course, there is always the possibility that the audio is distorted..." She held her hand to her chin.

"Hmm. Who could _possibly_ be able to decode the message, because of having worked with audio, likely because they were a famous musician?" Rose very obviously hinted at Greg. She even was looking at him.

"Oh, you are kidding me." Pearl crossed her hands, never being able to accept that a human man is better than her in a lot of aspects.

"That's right! I'm the audio daddy-o." Greg happily clicked his fingers and went through the portal that Leo had left behind.

"Isn't your name actually Greg? Or maybe Mr. Universe, the stage name." Amethyst was puzzled.

"How many times must we step through the portal before everything is resolved?" Pearl said as she stepped through the portal herself. Amethyst, Rose and Connie also followed her. Garnet was the last to leave the house behind, as she carefully removed all pillows from the Stone, except for the one in its hole.

* * *

"I can't believe that you actually need some help with audio, since in that case you've definitely come to the right guy!" The gems and Connie listened to Greg ramble. "Being a one-man band taught me a lot about management, drawing art for the album covers and touring, but I certainly have a special thing with audio."

Everyone stared, confused, as they saw Greg dig through the equipment that they couldn't even hope to understand. One device that caught Rose's attention in particular looked like a pad with various schematic buttons, which was attached to a microphone. She had hung out with Greg long enough to know that a microphone was meant to be spoken into, and therefore, as there was nothing more interesting to do, she turned the device on, held one of the buttons and spoke into it.

" _Welcome to the Homeworld Transportation Hub._ " Rose's voice didn't sound like her, but also definitely wasn't Steven. " _Please move quickly through the entry gates, as prolonged exposure to the rigors of space is not included in the itinerary._ "

"Help! My wife is both an alien _and_ a robot!" Greg laughed as he finally found the thing that he was looking for. It looked like another microphone, but also had the foam cover which had the impression of the pillow being wrapped around its end, much like the actual pillow, which was still inside the Wailing Stone. "The Lubitz Cardioid Condenser 680. It's got warm voices without too much top-end." When Greg grabbed the microphone, it glowed slightly, even though it was hard to see in daylight.

"I see that it will perfectly fit inside the stone. Please continue, Mr. Universe." Garnet nodded in approval. She then removed the pillow from the Stone, making it emit the same sound that everyone had already gotten annoyed of. There were only a few seconds of everyone having their ears blown off, though, as Greg quickly inserted the microphone inside the Stone, making it silent. He then dug through his equipment and found his mixboard, which he proceeded to connect both to the microphone and the van's power supply.

As he switched the mixboard on, the Stone began emitting the same sound as before. However, since it was now connected, Greg could pull the knobs on the board, changing the sound to a much more tolerable one. "Now I'm going to add some reverb and some low octave effects, I'm also adding some fuzz 'cause who couldn't use more fuzz?"

"Fuzz aside, do you really think your devices are compatible with ancient gem technology?" Pearl wondered.

"It does not hurt to try." Rose pointed out as the sound became more and more periodical, and soon enough, a sort of voice began to emerge.

"Here we go..." Amethyst decided, as she tried desperately to listen to the voice. However, just as the voice was picked up, the van's battery shorted out, shutting the signal off.

"Just as I predicted: this would not work. Thanks for your assistance anyway." Pearl shook Garnet's hand.

"We will figure out something else." Garnet proceeded to do the same, as she, Amethyst and Rose left for the Crystal Temple. Connie also decided to call her parents so that she could be picked up, because she had spent enough time with the Gems and Steven wasn't there.

"I, however, will stay behind to repair the broken electricity system. It is only human technology, I will be able to do it." Pearl said as she got to the front of the van and opened the lid, trying to figure out what was going on and why smoke was coming out from the system.

* * *

That night, Greg had driven his van to the beach, playing the guitar rather sadly. Rose had noticed this through the window, and realized that this is why, even though she had laid down in the human bed, she couldn't drift off to sleep. Her organic form could definitely go to sleep and dream - in fact, even the "human constructs" made of pure light were capable of doing that, even if only Amethyst ever indulged in it - but there was the distinct anxiety and worry if he was okay after failing to impress the Crystal Gems which kept Rose's eyes wide open.

Rose descended down the stairs and was about to step through the door, but realized that she still didn't fit through. She thought about crouching once again, but feared of getting stuck, and she _definitely_ wasn't going to call Leo for a task as mundane as that. Thinking of other options, her eyes were diverted to the window. It was large enough that she could fit if she was walking on all fours. It would just be a matter of getting back on legs once she was on the other side.

She then looked back at the window, and decided to open it in the horizontal fashion and then go through.

"Rose, you do know that you're in an organic body. If you get hurt in the night, you are not going to regenerate, right?" The voice of Pearl called out for her.

"Do not worry. I am just seeing Greg again." Rose said as she climbed through the window, placing first her arms the her legs outside. Then, a cold breeze blew in, making Pearl close the window almost immediately. She then thought that she had forgotten something to say, and now her voice rang in her own head: _Also, if you stay awake all night, you're not going to feel well tomorrow. I know because Steven has done this quite a few times, much to both of our regret._

As Rose was able to get her legs on the staircase and stand up again, she climbed down the stairs. It took a while for her to process that this was her first time defeating the obstacle, and for a while she felt proud of herself. The feeling quickly subsided, though, when she looked back at the van and the man playing guitar, sitting on the van's edge.

Just as Rose looked again, Greg stopped playing, mostly because he was so ashamed of himself because he failed at assisting the Gems with audio, which was pretty much his main expertise. As he put the guitar down and dug around for CDs to play, his eyes met a single with the map of three European countries drawn on it. Interested in its content, he immediately put it on.

As the chords began playing, Greg recognized what it was about. "Oh, here's some song I picked up from my tours in the nineties. Or was it the eighties?"

Rose used her powers of being able to interact with electric appliances to temporarily stop the CD. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that we are together, and we can sing together." She started the song from the beginning again, and quickly thought of apropos lyrics to sing about how she felt since the beginning of her life as a Crystal Gem.

Thus, when the lyrics of the actual song began, she began singing as well. For both of them, it was easier to listen to what Rose sang, because neither of them knew any language of those three countries.

_[Song parody: Atmostas Baltija / Bunda jau Baltija / Ärgake Baltimaad]_

_Four dear sisters, standing by the sea_  
They saved the world, but didn't even see  
That they'd remain on Earth for years on end  
Their senses just telling to defend

For the second verse, Greg had decided to sing instead of Rose. He had already thought of what the gems were feeling right now, and momentarily, in the beat of the song, forgot about his problems.

 _But now, the Homeworld is out there to fight_  
And as the humanity fears  
Four sisters awake with all of their might  
They will not surrender just there

For the chorus, Rose and Greg sang together. The other Crystal Gems had already realized what was going on, and Pearl had opened the window vertically, so that they could hear the song as well.

 _Crystal Gems, reunite_  
Crystal Gems, reunite  
Universe, Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl

Finally, as the chorus was reprised, the other Crystal Gems finally began singing together, as if it was their new theme.

 _Crystal Gems, reunite_  
Crystal Gems, reunite  
Universe  
Amethyst  
Garnet  
And Pearl

Since the instrumental part of the song had begun again, Rose and Greg lowered their hands, which they had raised together, while holding them, during the "Universe" lyric. Out of interest, Pearl continued to listen to them chat, while the song was playing in the background.

"It's a shame the gems just turned away from me like this after I failed at something I thought I knew I'd succeed at." Greg sighed deeply.

"Well, it's not your fault. After all, we're dealing with gem technology 5000 years ahead of even my own time. Who knows what Homeworld has up their sleeves now." Rose thought back to the bygone days.

"Yeah, you could suppose that five thousand years is enough for an entire civilization to just move on from audio to..." Suddenly, Greg was hit with an idea. "Of course! This isn't audio at all, but... hmm. What could it be?"

Rose looked at the back of the van, trying to see something that isn't audio-related, and her eyes immediately caught on a screen which she presumed was a television. She then put her hand on the television, also getting Greg's attention.

"Video! Of course. Well, I suppose video killed the audio star." Greg laughed at his own joke. He was then about to run towards the beach house, but saw Rose sitting there and asked her: "You stay right there. I'll get the gems quick."

Rose could only watch as Greg ran upstairs and excitedly said something to the Gems. Pearl crossed her hands and Amethyst looked away, but Garnet shook his hand once again, perhaps deciding that it was for the best to let him take another shot at decoding the video. Thus, all four stepped down and came towards the van where Rose was still seated, and Garnet decided to plug herself to the van's battery, so that a more stable power source could be used.

Greg plugged an additional plug into the mixboard, the other end of which went to the video jack of the television. Initially, only the characteristic snow meaning "nothing could be picked up" was heard, but as the man messed with the board some more, it almost made sense that it could be video, as the lines were beginning to look periodic. Finally, after what seemed like forever setting up the equipment and trying not to look nervous in front of Amethyst, Pearl and Rose, the video footage was observed, showing a blue-skinned Gem, who shouted: " _Steven!_ "

"Lapis Lazuli." Rose instantly recognized her.

"It actually worked!" Greg laughed as he took his place next to the Gems and began watching the video with them.

" _I hope you're able to hear this. There's a Gem looking for you, she even knew your name._ " As Lapis spoke, the background remained unchanged, likely because she was using an equivalent of a human camera and couldn't add any pictures or effects. " _I don't know how! I didn't tell her I swear! She's on her way to Earth, and she's not alone. Steven, Homeworld is not the way it used to be. Everything here is so advanced! I can't even understand it. There's no way anything on Earth can stand up to it. Please, don't put up a fight, it'll only lead to devastation-_ " Lapis's message was cut short, and the static resumed. Assuming that there was no more of the message to decode, Greg unplugged the video jack and everything else from the Stone.

"Steven actually knew Lapis." Rose wondered, not paying too much attention to the content of the message.

"Yes?" Pearl was puzzled.

"And now we're all going to die and it's _his fault!_ " Amethyst felt the need to shout. Rose only awkwardly looked at her, but the moment could not be exchanged as Garnet plugged the van's battery back up together and shook Greg's hand once again. He could only wonder how she does anything with her hands when both of them have gemstones on them.

"Thank you. We got the message, and we will be able to resume our routine. Have a nice day." Garnet said, then turned to the other gems. "Let's go." Soon enough, everyone followed her and she, Amethyst and Pearl were able to enter the beach house. Rose, however, was still too big for the door. Pearl sighed as she opened the window once again, letting her in.

And thus, Rose was finally able to lay down in the human bed, thinking that everything was resolved after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's idiotisms: From now on, updates may become scarce as right now, I am in a programming camp. (Cue all the comments saying that I'm wasting my time here.)
> 
> Anyway, another note! Originally, the song parody in this chapter was going to be something from the repertoir of ABBA. It's a shame, since now I don't get to make a joke in which Amethyst transforms into a sheep and goes "Baa!" and Greg corrects her: "You mean BAAB, with an additional B." But whatever, this song lent itself to being parodied much better.


	6. Taking Care

It was sometime in the morning, just after the day when the message was received. Rose had woken up just as yesterday, after having had another chat with Steven in her dreams. When she woke up, though, she felt something being held up in her lower abdomen, and wanted to close in her legs further.

The moments after the morning were to be as usual as human life could be to a nigh-immortal polymorphic sentient rock, but it seemed to be otherwise. When the other Crystal Gems returned, Amethyst immediately saw how funnily Rose walked and laughed. "Don't hold it, man! You gotta go to the bathroom and poop it out."

"What? The bathroom again? But this is different from..." Rose began to say, but found herself pushed by Amethyst to the bathroom door. Despite being much shorter than Rose, Amethyst could easily be considered stronger, and soon Rose was facing the door that was clearly too big for her.

"Oh, sorry." Rose backed away, and Amethyst punched a large chunk of the wall to the bathroom, also ripping the door off. In the door's former place there was now a gaping hole, easily high enough for Rose to walk through and sit on the white appliance.

"We'll get a new, bigger door soon... uh, no, you've gotta raise the thing. And raise your dress." Rose stood up again, raised "the thing" and lifted the layers of her dress until she felt pieces of meat - her _own_ meat, nonetheless - and then sat down, still holding her dress and feeling the meat touch down on the appliance.

Suddenly, the something in her lower abdomen began forcing itself through the buttcheeks and out of her body completely. This lasted for a while, with more of the material being conjured and wanting to be out. When the process was done and there was nothing in that part of the body, she stood up, only to see what the obstacle inside her was: a brown, sausage-like object that smelled real bad. She couldn't bear to see it too much, so she pushed the button on the appliance, as she had done last time, and the water inside took the brown object down.

Given that the door was literally ripped from its hinges, Amethyst had been staring intensely at the whole process and was sure that Rose was forgetting something also very important. Rose herself also thought this; as she stood up, it seemed as if not everything had escaped her lower hole (assuming there was just one), and something had gotten stuck inside. Rose wondered which of the objects on the appliance could be used to clean this pesky thing, and Amethyst pointed at the roll of white paper-like material. "Yeah, you're also supposed to get the toilet paper."

Rose shrugged and picked up one sheet of the "toilet paper" from the roll, also lifting her dress so that she could reach where it needed to be clean. She wiped the place, and when she put it away, the feeling there seemed to be better. But now the paper had to be thrown away to the trash bin (which Rose thankfully found)... and her hands were dirty.

Amethyst decided to assist her friend in need slightly. She pulled the tap again, and water began flowing. She then put Rose's hands in the water, and Rose immediately pulled them away, since the water was ice cold. It turned out that the different orientations of the handle of the tap meant different temperatures of the water, and by fiddling around enough, Amethyst was able to get the water that was the right temperature for Rose.

"Alright, now brush your hands. Why am I even the one to teach you how to be clean? That's Pearl's job. Oh, whatever, I was here." Amethyst wondered, but just then Pearl appeared from the warp pad and immediately noticed the broken wall.

"What happened to the toilet door?" She asked, shrieking.

"Rose needed to human poop and couldn't get in, so I ripped off the whole door."

"You watched Rose doing this human... human... _thing?_ " Pearl was completely horrified, and Rose even forgot what she was supposed to be doing. She decided to just turn off the tap and clean off all the water that had gotten on her with the nearby towel.

Pearl, though, grabbed Amethyst by the hand and pulled her outside the house, just so this stuff could be dealt with. Rose thus was left alone, in the house, hoping that there was _something_ to do there.

* * *

By the end of the day, Rose concluded that she was disillusioned about humans, and didn't think that anything noteworthy had happened this day that hadn't happened last day.

When she first came to existence after her "unfortunate event", she had been under the preconception that being a human was amazing, and that each new day would bring exciting adventures, but now that she actually got into human life, it seemed to be rather boring, with no day different from the rest. It was as if humans did little more than just eat, drink and reverse the processes in the ugliest manner possible.

They apparently couldn't even go on the same missions as gems, since those missions required to put your life on the line. When Garnet shook it off at midday, saying that the other gems were just relaxing in their rooms, it was obvious that they didn't, because they went _on the warp pad_ , not through the door of the Crystal Temple.

That evening, they even returned with a bubbled gem, and Amethyst had very obviously lied: "Oh, we were just playing around with this thing. You were literally missing out on the funniest throw that Garnet ever did! And then she said this joke, you should have heard of it!"

"You went on a mission." Rose decided to break the illusion.

However, even Pearl decided to join in on the masquerade. "Rose, there is nothing to worry about. You are safe here, because we are protecting humanity, and you will be fine until we figure out a way to bring Steven back."

Pearl. Rose's sole confidante, apparently the most heartbroken after her pregnancy and Steven's birth, now actually wanted Steven to come back.

For a while, Rose denied that there could be an actual bond between the two. Initially, she thought that from a logistical standpoint, Steven was easier to take care of. During the thousands of years on Earth, she had noted that larger humans (and larger animals in general) needed to eat and drink more, and from the bedside photos, Steven was basically a midget, even shorter than Amethyst. (Though, it was kind of hard to judge since Amethyst had also grown considerably during the time, due to reasons yet unknown to Rose.)

But the more Rose thought about it, the more it seemed likely. For the longest time, Pearl was surrounded by gems that were either stronger, taller or more noble than herself, and as a servant class gem, was simply taught to look up to them. Rose herself, as one of the highest-ranked nobles of the Homeworld society and, later on, the leader of the Crystal Gems, was the perfect "ultimate person to look up to". And even though, over time, she had lost her status, she still had that constant in her life: she had at least one gem to trust all her secrets to.

Steven, though, apparently changed everything. Since the Gems now had to prove themselves to be worthy guardians to his father, they began taking care of Steven, and sometimes, they would become rather involved in the process. Each of them had adopted a different attitude towards him: Amethyst took a "big sister" approach to the raising, Garnet watched from the sidelines, only mentoring Steven sometimes and taking care of the other two...

And Pearl must have been like a mother to Steven.

Essentially, Rose Quartz had been replaced: sometimes with Steven, sometimes with Garnet and sometimes even with the very person who had grieved her loss. As she lay in bed that night, still unable to sleep after the emotional turmoil that she had witnessed, she briefly thought that there was no place for her in the Crystal Gems anymore.

She began loudly sobbing.

It went on for a while, with tears dropping down from her face and onto the bed. Eventually, though, it got wet, and Rose had to turn her head. That, though, was the moment when she came across the portrait of herself once again. As she looked at it more carefully, the sobbing stopped, just as quickly as it had started.

 _But..._ Rose began thinking, now that her mind was a bit clearer than just "the Gems hate me now".

Pearl still grieved her. She still was in that moment at the floating platform, with Steven, recounting a memory with Rose when she first very briefly came into consciousness. Rose wasn't forgotten; far from it. The giant picture reminded her that she still had a certain place in the Crystal Gems' hearts, and it was just a matter of reclaiming some niches where she had been replaced, so that she would truly be accepted again.

 _Right now,_ Rose decided as she noticed Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet doing something with some device in the beach.

* * *

At the moment, Pearl was holding a robotic device with handles and an antenna, while Amethyst was pinning down one of the lime spheres, known as "Plug Robonoids", making sure that she didn't crush it. As much as she had loved smashing them and tasting the goo (much to Pearl's horror), this was a mission that needed to be done. Garnet, in the meantime, was a simple bystander.

"Robonoid ready?" Garnet asked, knowing for certain with Future Vision that she would not have a bigger role than this.

"Ready!" Amethyst practically shouted.

"Discharge device ready." Pearl said, as if reading from the device itself. "Let's see, Steven is not even remotely here to bother us and likewise, Rose is fast a..." She looked up and saw the familiar pink silhouette. " _...sleep! Rose!_ What do _you_ think you're doing here?"

"Bonding together with the other Crystal Gems?" Rose said, since she couldn't think of anything better.

"Rose, you do realize that you're a _human_. You could _die_ here, and then we would have neither you _nor_ Steven around!" Holding the device with one hand, Pearl put another one on her side.

"Yo, Steven's been out in the night many times and hasn't died yet! Rose will be _fine_. Now stop fussing and start... sciencing!" Amethyst glared back at Pearl, making both Rose and Garnet look across the entire gathering.

"Sciencing?" Pearl narrowed her eyes at the non word as she put her other hand back on the device.

"Science it up, man. _You're sciencing right now!_ " It showed that Amethyst had a particular liking to human culture and especially Internet videos. She was a gem raised on the Earth, after all.

"Please go on with the experiment." Rose pointed to Pearl's device. Surely enough, the white hands finally activated it by pushing the big red button, as was the case in a stereotypical science montage. The device activated, and on its top, a small bubble popped, emitting a blast that knocked all four Crystal Gems backwards. The blast went through Beach City, shutting its lights off block by block, until the entire city was shrouded in darkness.

However, gem technology seemed to work entirely differently. This was evidenced by the fact that the robonoid retracted its legs and started walking, stepping over each of the Gems separately.

"Well, that's that." Garnet supposed as she stood up.

"The best weapon ever!" Amethyst stood up and shook the dirt off her clothes. "Destroys what it should protect. But only that!"

As Pearl got up, she took the device and murmured some technobabble, likely because she was going to fix the device.

"Alright, I should go to sleep. In a human bed. Because I have a human body." Rose showed that she was barely able to string sentences together as she got up and walked across the beach. Though, before she could even make it halfway to the house, she fell over and put her hands on the sand, as if she had fallen asleep there.

"I will have to carry you, then." Garnet walked over to where Rose was, picked her up and carried her to the human bed.

* * *

Rose awoke to furious knocking on the door and a male voice which sounded oddly familiar, but never this stern. "Young Universe? The power is out and I need to talk to your... sisters!"

 _Steven has sisters? But I never became pregnant again, mainly because two consciousnesses in one gem is more than enough?_ Rose stumbled out of bed and gathered herself. While she was in this body, she tended to fall over... a lot, and each of the falls made her lose her confidence once again. In fact, being a restless soul staying inside another human almost seemed to be the preferable fate.

But the call from the man was to be answered, and as such Rose had to stand up. She got down the stairs and looked up to see one of those Dewey kids. There were at least several Deweys throughout the centuries, and weirdly enough, most of them had gotten to be the mayors of Beach City at one point or another. This Dewey kid was wearing a suit, so Rose immediately correctly assumed that he was the mayor.

However, Mayor Dewey was thinking about something entirely different, and became confused when he saw a body and face he thought he would never see again. "Rose... Quartz? Aren't you supposed to be dead at childbirth? Scratch that, this is even weirder than the other thing. You are coming with me." Dewey grabbed Rose's hand and wanted to pull her out of the house, but once again was confronted with the fact that the doors everywhere were too small for an eight-foot amazonian goddess.

"Nngh!" Dewey grunted as he continued to try and pull Rose through the door, rather unsuccessfully. "I need... to see... what all of this... is about!" The wood around the door began to crack.

"It's okay; if it happens more times, I will consider getting myself a smaller-" Rose's sentence was cut off as the wood finally snapped, breaking another door. Dewey and Rose were sent flying backwards onto the staircase, and once more onto the beach floor. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl had appeared on the warp pad once again, and only caught a glimpse of pink as they looked at the newly formed hole where the front door used to be.

Before Rose could even try to stand up again, Dewey took her hand again and began dragging her through the sand. This, however, was painfully slow, and therefore he stopped so that Rose could stand up and run together with the mayor to wherever he was taking her. The three other Gems could only watch as their former leader and the city's leader got away, and because Lion... Leo wasn't at their disposal, they couldn't hope to save Rose from the man in time.

As she passed through Beach City, Rose could only briefly admire how it had changed between Steven's birth and the present day. The first shop across from the Temple, Big Donut, was completely unfamiliar to her, while some others kept the buildings, but changed the names. There wasn't much time to read the names; therefore, Rose couldn't pinpoint where the car wash was, no matter how much she wanted to see it.

One of the passers-by, though, noticed the two people running through the city. His blond hair was bound together in bundles which somewhat resembled French fries, and he was holding a portable electronic communications device not unlike Steven's, taking pictures with it, each of which resulted in a loud noise and a flash of light. He also followed Dewey and Rose during their run.

The three finally stopped at what Rose knew was the City Council. However, she was facing the problem with the doors once _again_ , and Dewey ran inside, the stranger following him. Eventually, Dewey made it back outside and took Rose to behind the building, where a window was wide open, so Rose could easily float up and climb in.

The stranger finally decided to greet himself. "So, Mrs. Universe. Nice to meet you. I'm Ronaldo, and you might know me from my blog, Keep Beach City Weird."

"Your... blog?" _Great. So now, the language is also different._ Rose sighed and continued the conversation with Ronaldo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's idiotisms: "Rose did it twice a day." - that deviantART comic by neodusk
> 
> Yeah... no. As far as actually doing human stuff like that goes, Rose and Pearl are literally on the same tier. It's just that this fic's Rose is in a human's body, and therefore has all the advantages (and disadvantages) of a human being.
> 
> Also, two YouTube references in one chapter. I feel disgusted with myself.


	7. Memory Lane

"You know, a blog! It's a thing in the future that people have in which they document their stuff, and right now I'm documenting you! You will be on my blog! What to ask, though..." As Ronaldo began thinking of what he should _really_ say, he put his hand on the mayor's table, and Rose examined it in more detail. It was a simple table made of dark wood, with mostly paperwork and a name plaque reading "Mayor Dewey" on it in an old-fashioned font. It wasn't anything not familiar to her; the other Dewey children also occasionally had trouble with her and the fact that the Crystal Temple is off-limits for humans, and had invited the Gems for a couple of talks.

Before Rose could pinpoint all the details, though, Ronaldo clicked his fingers with the same hand. "Aha! I should ask you this first: what was the last memory you had before your event?"

"Well," Rose began, as Ronaldo snapped more pictures of her, "the date would be Sunday, August 15th, 2004. Garnet had informed me that this would be what humans call a "due date", i.e. when Steven would be born. Therefore, for my last couple days, I had been laid down on a human bed, placed just outside the Crystal Temple. Greg had taken a day off specifically for that day, and therefore I distinctly remember that he, Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet were looking at me when the pains of labor took over. The pains were coupled with blinding light, too bright to be the sun, to mention nothing of the fact that it was a cloudy day in Beach City. Besides this, I only remember that Pearl screamed my name as my vision had been taken over completely and the pain made me unable to think anything, only feeling as the light constructs were pushing themselves, giving their way for baby Steven."

"M-hm." On his phone, Ronaldo had switched to recording voice, so that he could transcribe the dialogue and post it later. After all, there was no posting it right now, since the power was still out in the entirety of Beach City. "And _after_ the event?"

"To be honest, not that much. Only a few times there were things that were emotional enough for me to briefly come around, like when Steven first summoned his- I mean _my_ shield. And during the last... episode, Pearl was recounting a memory from five thousand years ago, Steven figured out what was going on and we two decided that for the time being, I should complete the unfinished with her."

"Yeeeeeeeeeees." Ronaldo drew out the word. He had no idea what was going on between Pearl and Rose, and therefore the last sentence sounded like white noise to him.

"Now, I get to ask you a question." Rose slightly grinned. "What _is_ a blog and what can I expect from it?"

"I'm glad you asked." Ronaldo began his exposition. "You see, people around you choose to be blind; oblivious to the truth that is right in front of them. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to spread the truth in the most obvious way possible. Unfortunately, I do not have the resources to publish a book and my attempts at creating a television show went slightly awry, but _that's_ where the Internet comes in!"

"The inter... what? Does it have anything to do with interstellar travel?" Rose asked, once again hearing an unfamiliar term.

"Well, the Internet is like... a whole bunch of pages, like those of books, except on a screen! And you navigate it, and I'm pretty sure that if I gave you a working computer right now, you could find my blog! Unfortunately, I ain't got the _power_ for it. Eh?"

"You answered none of the questions that I had, but okay." Rose shrugged.

"Well, I can't explain what the Internet is, but I can... take another picture!" The phone that Ronaldo had flashed once again, before emitting a strange sound. "Oh, wait, I can't, battery's drained."

"I think Steven has a phone, but I'm not willing to run back to the house to get it."

"Where _is_ Steven, anyway?" Ronaldo asked.

Instead of explaining thoroughly, Rose just pointed to the star-shaped hole on her belly, exposing her gem. "Right here."

" _What?_ We know that you are an alien, you didn't need to point that out."

"No, I meant that that's where Steven is. Inside my gem."

"That doesn't even remotely make sense, even by alien standards. It just seems that you're lying to me. You don't want to be lying to me, the pioneer of truth. Isn't that right, Mrs. Universe?" Ronaldo stepped on the mayor's desk and knelt so that he could look straight at Rose's face better.

Rose shivered. Not because she knew that what Ronaldo doing was wrong; the sensation was distinct, and she could just _feel_ that Steven was about to say something. She still didn't know the relation between Steven and every Beach City resident (besides Greg and Connie, of course), and therefore how he reacted was a surprise to her. _"Go away."_

"What? Who said that?" Ronaldo backed away from Rose, frantically looking around the mayor's office for anything suspicious. This, though, made a few papers slide, and before he knew it, the blogger found himself falling from the table and onto the cold floor. As he hit the floor, he took his time to stand up, before looking around the office some more.

"Take a wild guess." Rose crossed her hands. As much as it was fun to play with Ronaldo, the more she talked to him, the more she realized that he was actually somewhat crazy, and that his search for truth led him farther away from it, rather than closer to it.

"You know, Mrs. Universe," Ronaldo said, as he put the papers that he had taken down from the table back on it, "I have also been investigating science and how it searches for truth. And science has this to say on the matter: whenever something strange happens, it must be repeated for it to be considered truth. Therefore, I demand that you look at me in the eyes again. Just so I know that you're not playing tricks with me." When Ronaldo spoke for longer periods of time, it seemed that he was getting on Rose's nerves more.

But just for the sake of self-exploration and learning more about Steven, Rose agreed. She sat down and folded her legs, so that Ronaldo would be able to study her face again. Once he got close enough, she shivered again, and the voice of Steven returned: _"I said go away. I don't want to see someone who kidnapped me so close."_

Rose gasped in shock. Ronaldo tried to back away once again, but found that he had been stepping on Rose's multilayered dress and tripped again. After giggling at how humans just cannot handle their bodies, Rose's expression suddenly grew serious. "You kidnapped him? What is going on?"

"Well, he did pretend to be a snake person to me that one time, and s-since I didn't know any better, I went with it and wanted to do a-an investigation on him... until I learned that it was Steven." Ronaldo stumbled on his words at least a couple of times, suddenly being terrified of what Rose had learned and that she might use it against him.

"So, this is what aliens are to you? Mere playthings you can stuff in your laboratory, research and then forget about them?" For the first time in forever, Rose actually felt disgust with a human being. Granted, she didn't talk that much with human beings besides Greg and a couple others who were now long dead, but none of them had made her lose her self-worth more than Ronaldo.

"Well, to be fair, that's what _you_ must think of _us_! Aliens invading Earth and everything. Playing with us, and so on. It's in every science fiction story! Plain as day, _Mrs. Universe._ " Ronaldo finally thought of a comeback that would pull him out of this situation.

And for a while, it seemed that it worked. Rose fell silent, her eyes going blank, a breeze even covering them with her curls, as she reminisced.

* * *

_**Just outside Planet Earth, Crystal System, 182 After Interstellar Travel...** _

_Pink Diamond glanced outside the window of a spaceship that was fast approaching its target: a planet with blue oceans, green, yellow and white portions of land and white clouds. As an important gem authority, she had been in the pilot's cabin, alongside with a pearl who was doing the actual piloting and a topaz who had already gathered information on the planet prior to the mission._

_"We have the report right here, Our Diamond Superior," the topaz began telling in a monotone voice. "The planet has been observed to be hospitable to life, as the different colors of its surface show different densities of life there. With a surface gravity close to that of Homeworld, it will be an ideal playground for growing gems, and we expect the rate of gem production on the planet to be second only to Homeworld itself."_

_"Do you have any data on the life itself?" Pink Diamond asked. She looked very different back then; her hair was completely straight, her composition was slightly thinner and her clothing consisted of a two-part white costume which showed both her legs, but otherwise was fairly loose on her._

_"No, sir, Our Diamond Superior."_

_"Then I order to land on the planet. Let's start with the yellow areas." The topaz only nodded, and the pearl maneuvered without any response. Pink Diamond could only observe as the faint dot in front of her exploded into a planet just as the topaz described, and soon enough, the gem ship was in the planet's atmosphere. The skies suddenly gained a blue color, getting brighter with each mile descended, until the ship slowed down before hitting the final yellow surface. There were no clouds over this particular part of the planet, and therefore there it was fairly hot. One could simply_ see _that there was no hope for life to ever flourish here._

_"Alright. Now, I order to land on the green areas to the north." As much as Pink Diamond was a gem like any other, she couldn't let anyone know. For all intents and purposes, she was as high as one could get in gem society. Therefore, the pearl obliged once again and the ship rose to just barely above the atmosphere, so that it could observe the planet in more detail. The yellow area on the planet was quite large, but eventually it gave its way in to a small sea sandwiched between two continents. The other continent was an example of green areas, and mostly seemed to consist of separated islands, with a few peninsulas here and there. Since Pink Diamond hadn't given directions on where specifically to land, the pearl placed the ship down on the shore of one of the peninsulas, in what appeared to neighbor a mountainous area._

_As Pink Diamond predicted, life was flourishing. There were trees with lush green leaves (Homeworld had already eradicated most of them) and similar green grass. There were a few animals grazing the grass as well, but so far nothing more intelligent than a gem shard._

_Or at least, not as Pink Diamond saw. Soon, an aquamarine entered the pilot's cabin as well and told, in a voice that could be mistaken for one of the topaz, but which was clearly distinct: "Our Diamond Superior, observers have spotted signs of structures constructed by an extraplanetary intelligence. Would you like for us to take you to them?"_

_"Yes." Pink Diamond continued to observe nonchalantly, not even having made a single step out of the ship before it rose again and took the gems to a nearby shore, where one could make out a tent in the forest. The main inhabitants of the tent were bipedal, wore leather over their bodies and in a lot of ways, reminded Pink Diamond of gems themselves._

_For the first time in what seemed to be an eternal life, Pink Diamond felt something distinct._

_It was a deep mixture of feelings towards life on other planets. There was so much to be discovered, from the manner in which they walked to the language which they spoke. But at the same time, there was a slight pity for them. This was a species that could, eventually, develop to have lives as meaningful as those of gems themselves, and given how the conversion projects by Gemkind were going on, the chances of this species would be eliminated._

_Even though the topaz and aquamarine had already taken on to exploring the planet, Pink Diamond remained there, with the pearl in the pilot's cabin, thinking that this was all wrong. She couldn't just step up against the other Diamonds, she couldn't just stop the conquest without getting dethroned, but she still knew that something was wrong._

_Just then, someone else from the newly discovered intelligent species decided that they liked what they saw and looked inside. The individual dressed rather differently from the rest, their shirt and pants being made from something more advanced than leather and their hair being not as dirty. In fact, they were much closer to a gem in looks. They spoke:_

_"Oh my gosh, Mom! I can't believe you were a real Pink Diamond!"_

_Pink Diamond, or "Mom" as the individual referred to her, stepped away. Her first thought was that the individual had no right to be on gem property, but at the same time, reality began falling apart over her. The pearl finally stuck her hands out of the interface of the ship and turned to the two, and reminded: "Actually, that would be the_ current _Pink Diamond, and besides, I'm pretty sure that no gemstone is ever named_ "Mom" _. That would be a former rose quartz specimen..."_

_Rose Quartz._

_This name resonated with her much more than "Our Diamond Superior" ever could. As she realized that this particular memory was, in fact, long past, she continued to observe the engagement between the pearl and the individual._

_"...and besides, you have no right to be on this ship."_

_"No way! I'm actually Rose's son, Steven."_

_"Not only there is no gemstone named_ "Steven" _either, and disregarding the fact that a) you recognize Pink Diamond and b) we cannot be each other's son, I'm pretty sure that you come from the_ planet _side, not the_ ship _side, and therefore are native to the planet, and_ therefore _are to be eliminated at Pink Diamond's order..."_

_"I am not - eliminating - anything." Pink Diamond, or rather Rose Quartz, said._

_"What?" The pearl shouted before its silhouette began to blur. It transformed into a much more familiar one with the ribbon around her waist from the modern day. She also stumbled with her speaking, as if the memories around Rose were being updated live. "But Our Diamond- I mean Rose, don't you think that it's a little risky? The human could- I mean, you don't love Greg_ that _much, do you?"_

 _As Rose began processing where she_ really _was, she could only watch as the ship suddenly melted into liquid that embraced her._

* * *

Rose awoke with someone splashing water onto the face. Both Ronaldo and the Dewey child were there, in the mayor's office, looking at her. As they finally saw that she woke up, they looked at each other. Ronaldo spoke first: "She must have been kept down, once I mentioned human experiments, because she is actively being silenced by the diamond authority!"

Rose, though, only lifted her hand and reached for Ronaldo, slapping him. The Dewey child wanted to protest, but knew that none of the Crystal Gems were ever to be questioned, and Ronaldo looked at Rose intensely again, as she stood up and said:

"I was _part_ of the Diamond Authority."

Even though Rose still wasn't feeling all that well - however the huamns would describe it - Ronaldo loudly gasped. "A sensational twist!"

The Dewey child finally took his role. "You see, Mr. Fryman, I believed that you were onto something with your blog, and wanted you to investigate why Rose Quartz had appeared on our town with absolutely no trace of Steven, but it's actually known between me, my ancestors and the Gems that yes, Rose Quartz used to be known as Pink Diamond. Therefore, I now dismiss all of your theories as having no merit, and don't want you investigating this anymore. Out of my office." Ronaldo looked down and reluctantly stepped through the door.

Rose, though, looked around, shocked and with her head hurting. "What time is it? The gems must be missing me!"

Dewey looked at his watch, then opened the window. It appeared to be evening time, as the air was already getting quite chilly. "Don't you worry, Rose Quartz, for you will see your... sisters... in no time. You just need to step outside and I will guide you." Rose jumped out of the window, and Dewey said "I will meet you there." before he closed the window and frantically ran out of his office.

When he reappeared on where Rose was, he began guiding her, more slowly as he realized that she must have been hurt. Since there was still no power, Beach City was only lit up by battery-powered flashlights which people used to navigate. This was a sight unfamiliar to even Rose, as she had been there at the advent of electricity, but she figured that everything would be solved in no time.

And once again, once she passed the "Big Donut" and went to the other side of the beach, there was the house, with a haphazardly "fixed" hole. Must have been Amethyst's doing.

"I'll see you soon, and if Fryman gives you any trouble, I'll kick him in the face." Dewey said as he was about to go back to his office.

"Fryman?" Rose asked.

"Ronaldo." Dewey clarified before he ran off and Rose began walking up the stairs of the house, when she realized that what she originally thought were differently-colored building materials were actually the other Crystal Gems, conversing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's idiotisms: If you ever see a pair of people nicknamed Esahc and weevilo707, tell them I'd love to see them soon.
> 
> Also, August 15, 2004 means that Steven is a Leo. See what I did there? Leo? Lion? (Alright, originally it said "the 12th", but then Rebecca said that Steven's birthday is the 15th, so I changed it. Still, amazing how I was wrong by a mere three days.)
> 
> Oh, and I never thought that I would be writing anything even remotely related to the Gem War, but it just turned out this way. (still sulking about the fact that the original RQ=PD theory was proved wrong, but now there's a better one and there should be a link to my fic about it below this note click that)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Blooming Rose 2018](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13616094) by [ASBusinessMagnet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ASBusinessMagnet/pseuds/ASBusinessMagnet)




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